Architecture for internet of things

• US 10,419,540 B2
• Filed: 08/10/2016
• Issued: 09/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Arora, Pankaj S., Davis, Joshua M., Getty, Kyle K., Mumm, Aaron L., Kepl, Lynn, Hallman, Kimberly D. A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Won, Michael
• Application Number:
  US15/233,098
• Publication Number:
  US 20170099353A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,133 Days
• Field of Search: 709224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

The description relates to managing physical locations with IoT devices. One example can include a sensor array assembly comprising an enclosure and a mounting element. The mounting element can include multiple apertures spaced at different distances from the enclosure. The sensor array assembly can also include a connector that is receivable by individual apertures.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a device comprising a processor and storage;

multiple sensors of different sensor types linked to the device via multiple ports, the multiple sensors including one or more low-energy short-range wireless sensors; and

computer-readable instructions stored on the storage which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

upon bootup of the system, send a device identification to a cloud service and a request to the cloud service to determine a configuration of the system;

responsive to the request sent upon bootup of the system, receive configuration data for individual sensors from the cloud service, wherein the configuration data identifies individual ports of the system that the individual sensors are coupled to and sensor types for the individual sensors;

collect sensor data about a physical environment from the individual sensors based at least upon the configuration data; and

,

send the sensor data and Internet of Things device health status updates to the cloud service, the sensor data including low-energy short-range wireless sensor data sensed by the one or more low-energy short-range wireless sensors, the low-energy short-range wireless sensor data reflecting a low-energy short-range wireless signal emitted by a wireless beacon.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the cloud service comprises a cloud-based remote device that provides a sensor processing system for the physical environment.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

generate the request using a representational state transfer call.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

collect the sensor data at different polling rates for at least two different sensors, as specified by the configuration data.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the multiple sensors include a sound sensor, a motion sensor, a temperature sensor, a light sensor, and an air quality sensor.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the device is an embedded device having an embedded operating system.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the computer-readable instructions comprise embedded firmware.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the embedded firmware, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to:

report processor load, memory utilization, and storage utilization to the cloud service.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the embedded firmware, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to:

for a first sensor;

identify, in the configuration data, a first physical port of the system to which the first sensor is connected, a first communication protocol to use for the first sensor, and a first polling rate at which to poll the first sensor; and

poll the first sensor over the first physical port at the first polling rate using the first communication protocol; and

for a second sensor;

identify, in the configuration data, a second physical port of the system to which the second sensor is connected, a second communication protocol to use for the second sensor, and a second polling rate at which to poll the second sensor; and

poll the second sensor over the second physical port at the second polling rate using the second communication protocol,

wherein the first sensor is a different type of sensor than the second sensor, the first communication protocol is different than the second communication protocol, and the first polling rate is different than the second polling rate.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the embedded firmware, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to:

periodically communicate a heartbeat ping to the cloud service.

11. A method comprising:

upon bootup of a system, sending a device identification to a cloud service and a request to the cloud service to determine a configuration of the system;

responsive to the request sent upon bootup of the system, receiving configuration data for multiple sensors from the cloud service, wherein the configuration data identifies individual ports of the system that individual sensors are coupled to and sensor types for the individual sensors, the multiple sensors including one or more low-energy short-range wireless sensors;

collecting sensor data about a physical environment from the individual sensors based at least upon the configuration data; and

,

sending the sensor data and Internet of Things device health status updates to the cloud service, the sensor data including low-energy short-range wireless sensor data sensed by the one or more low-energy short-range wireless sensors, the low-energy short-range wireless sensor data reflecting a low-energy short-range wireless signal emitted by a wireless beacon.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the cloud service comprises a cloud-based remote device that provides a sensor processing system for the physical environment.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the multiple sensors include at least one of a sound sensor, a motion sensor, a temperature sensor, a light sensor, or an air quality sensor.

14. The method of claim 11, performed by an Internet of Things device and wherein the multiple sensors comprise Internet of Things sensors.

15. The method of claim 11, performed by an embedded operating system of an embedded device.

16. The method of claim 15, performed by executing embedded firmware.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

reporting at least two of processor load, memory utilization, and storage utilization of the system to the cloud service.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

polling different sensors at different polling rates as specified by the configuration data received from the cloud service.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

periodically communicating a heartbeat ping to the cloud service.

20. A hardware computer-readable storage media storing a set of instructions which, when executed by a processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

upon bootup of a system, sending a device identification to a cloud service and a request to the cloud service to determine a configuration of the system;

responsive to the request sent upon bootup of the system, receiving configuration data for multiple sensors from the cloud service, wherein the configuration data identifies individual ports of the system that individual sensors are coupled to and sensor types for the individual sensors, the multiple sensors including one or more low-energy short-range wireless sensors;

collecting sensor data about a physical environment from the individual sensors based at least upon the configuration data; and

,

sending the sensor data and Internet of Things device health status updates to the cloud service, the sensor data including low-energy short-range wireless sensor data sensed by the one or more low-energy short-range wireless sensors, the low-energy short-range wireless sensor data reflecting a low-energy short-range wireless signal emitted by a wireless beacon.